1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reproduction apparatus and methods, and more specifically, to improvements in merging a supplemental print job of electronically written variable information or supplemental copy job with a previous copy job of multiple collated copies of a document copied using a recirculating document feeder or a document positioner.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Electrophotographic or electrostatographic reproduction apparatus such as xerographics copiers may be described as image forming apparatus which is provided with image information on a document and reproduces it on a copy sheet. Such high speed electrophotographic reproduction apparatus as the Kodak.RTM. 2100 copier/duplicator is capable of being programmed by an operator for printing or copying a first job followed by or in conjunction with a job supplement selection so that a resulting set of copies includes the merged together main and supplemental job. The merged together jobs are assembled in the bins of a collator.
In the Kodak.RTM. 2100 copier, a feature referred to as VIEW (variable information electronically written) may be employed together with a data base of variable information data in order to customize copies made from the original document. For example, 20 copies of a ten page document may be optically reproduced as a copy job. A job supplement job then may be reproduced using a cover sheet original that is optically copied while each copy is printed with a different address. Thus when the copy job and job supplement job are merged in the sorter each copy will contain a custom addressed cover letter. Alternatively, the VIEW feature may be employed to electronically print an entire separate cover sheet for each copy having particular variable information reproduced thereon. In this sense, the copying of the original document to form multiple collated copy sets constitutes the primary copy job, and the electronic printing of the variable information employing the VIEW feature may be characterized as a job supplement or job-plus operation. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,128, describes one manner in which VIEW data is merged into and printed on a cover sheet of one page of a print job so that each copy is customized with individual addressee information read from a data base in a patch creation mode. It is also desirable at times to be able to merge together in a proper order, the main and supplemental copy jobs made from optical copying of two separate original documents.
The exposure of a multisheet original document for optical copying normally takes place on an exposure platen, wherein the sheets of the original document are serially presented to the exposure platen in a predetermined exposure position either manually or by operation of an automatic document positioner feeder or by a recirculating document feeder. Where the sorter is elected for collation, multiple copies are made of each sheet of a multisheet document original as each sheet comes to be is supported on the exposure platen. The multiple copies of each sheet are transported to a collator where they are directed to separate bins where optimally, the copy sheets are stacked in the same order as the pages of the original document.
The automatic document positioner feeder typically automatically transports each sheet of the multisheet original document manually placed in a document feeding position in a sequence onto the exposure platen where the sheet is successively exposed once for each copy to be made. Thus if N copies are to be made where N is an integer greater than one, the sheet is exposed at least N times. After the requisite number of exposures of each sheet of the document are made onto the charged photosensitive member, the sheet is transported to a document take-up tray. The document positioner feeder normally operates by feeding document sheets to the platen in an order established by the operator and typically an operator will feed sheets from the top first and the bottom last. The associated collator drops each copy sheet in the order made in respective collator bins. In order for the copies to be in collated order in each bin, the copies are placed face down in the bin since the page order of making copies using the document positioner is usually from first to last (simplex case).
As noted above, an original document may also be copied by manually placing document sheets onto the exposure platen. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,862 describes a relatively simple photocopier having a feeder that may be moved out of the way in order to position either a thick book or a very thin and fragile sheet of paper onto the exposure platen for exposure. In such copiers, the feeder apparatus does not operate unless it senses a document in the document feeder in its place and feeder in its place is in proper position for feeding document sheets. Consequently, the book or thin sheet must be manually removed after the programmed number of copies have been made. In addition, the '862 patent provides a means for inhibiting the operation of the document feeder if copies of such manually placed documents are not removed. Specifically, a flag is set each time the copier is operated when the feeder is not used and the flag disables the feeder until its carriage is manually lifted up and brought back down, which indicates to the copier logic that the user has removed the manually placed document from the exposure platen.
In such a photocopier as the KODAK.RTM. 2100 copier recirculating document feeder when used feeds the sheets or pages of the multisheet original document from the last or bottom most to the top sheet or page and the copy sheets of each page are dropped facing up into the bins of the collator so that the copies are arranged in the proper collated order.
In order to avoid reversing the copy pages in the collator when collated copies of multipaged documents or books are manually presented to the exposure platen mode, it is necessary to manually place the original document pages or sheets on the exposure platen from last to first.
A recirculating document feeder with a document positioner is also shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,169,674 and 5,085,418. The recirculating document feeders deliver document sheets seriatim to the reproduction apparatus exposure station and return the sheets to the document stack in order. At the exposure station, only one reproduction of each respective document sheet is made on one circulation. The desired number of reproductions is made by recirculating the document sheets from the stack to the exposure station and then back to the stack a corresponding number of times. By such reproduction sequence, the reproduction set of the document set is received at an output hopper in collated order. Thus, no subsequent operational steps on the reproduction set are required. Moreover, the recirculating document feeder shortens the copying time when making multiple copies of multisheet original documents.
The improved recirculating document feeder of the '418 patent comprises a support for a document sheet stack with a selected side of each document sheet facing up and with the selected side of the top-most document sheet in said stack for ready viewing. A feed path extends away from and then back to the document support, for directing sheets from the support into association with the exposure station and then back to the stack, the feed path defining with the support a closed-loop that inverts a sheet and directs the sheet into association with the reproducing station selected side down and then inverts the sheet again and directs the sheet to the top of the stack selected side up.
A document positioner is also provided that operates in a fashion similar to that described above with respect to the '862 patent in that it feeds a single sheet of a multisheet document at a time into the exposure position, makes the requisite number of exposures and copies, and then transports the sheet away and deposits it in a tray. The document sheet must be placed face down and manually advanced into a slot adjacent the exposure platen. Only one original document sheet at a time may be fed manually into the document positioner, and typically, users feed the pages or sheets of the original document into the document positioner from the first to the last page. Detectors are provided in the document positioner to detect a sheet being advanced into the slot to trigger operation of the feeder. The detection of the use of the document positioner also sets a flag for the collator so as to alter the transport path in order to turn over the copy sheets and direct them face down into the collator bins. Thus, the collated copies are assembled in the bins in the proper order.
After the principal or main print job is completed, a job supplement operation may be commenced that requires the job supplement copy sheets or merged-in data bearing sheets to be assembled in the correct order with the main copy job copies remaining in the collator bins. In the job-plus operation, merged-in VIEW data constituting the job supplement job results in a plurality of copy sheets which are deposited into each bin of the collator either face up or face down on top of the copies of the principal job. The principal job may have been copied employing the recirculating document feeder and copies thereof deposited face up in the bins. Alternatively, the principal job may have been printed using the document positioner and copies thereof deposited face down in the bins. Thus, instances arise where the principal job may have been made using the recirculating feeder leaving copies face up, and the job plus copies (which might be only one page using the patch creation mode or mail addressee VIEW data) may be subsequently made using the document positioner but be positioned face down as is usual for copies from the document positioner. In order to remedy this, the aforementioned KODAK.RTM. 2100 Copier/Duplicator copier has a feature that allows all job-plus copies made using the document positioned to be placed in the bins face up. This will tend to correct most problems since the recirculating feeder is used more often than the document positioner for feeding the principal job.
However, in any such electrophotographic reproduction apparatus employing a document positioner and document recirculating feeding apparatus, it is possible that the main and supplemental print jobs will be assembled in an improper order or facing opposite directions within the bins of the collator. If this occurs, it becomes necessary to manually reposition the principal copy job and supplemental copy or print jobs, thus obviating the advantages of the sophisticated programming, copying and collating apparatus.